Wayward Son: All is One
by Rainy Meadows
Summary: If the rest of Aerrow's training is like this, he'll be dead before the year is out. Contains spoilers for FMAB and previous Wayward Son fics.
1. Chapter 1

The hangar doors slowly opened and Aerrow stepped out, the sun shining brightly on his restrained red hair.

"How's the leg?" asked Ed.

"It's..." Aerrow looked down at his left foreleg. "It's better. Much better. I've got Piper's crystal skills to thank for that."

"Good," Ed said. "So have you come to a decision?"

"Yes," replied Aerrow. "And it's a yes. I want you to teach me everything you can about alchemy."

"Great!" Ed said cheerfully, and he started walking into the hangar. "Grab your knives; we'll get started right away."

"My knives?" Aerrow was confused, but started gearing up all the same. "What do I need them for?"

"You'll see. Also we'll need a location. Somewhere secluded but with lots of vegetation and wildlife, that isn't too big."

"I know a place, but why?"

"You'll see."

* * *

It was one of the little subsets of Terra Amazonia - about the size of the Condor, maybe a bit larger - and it was alive with the sounds of wildlife.

Aerrow disembarked from his skimmer, with Ed and Radarr close behind.

"This place is perfect," said Ed as he examined their surroundings. "Just what we need!"

"So what do we start with?" asked Aerrow. "Transmutation circles? Elements?"

"Nope."

The Sky Knight watched in bafflement as Ed climbed back onto the skimmer.

"We're gonna leave you here for a month," he said. "By yourself. You can use whatever crystals you come across, but no alchemy during that time or else you forfeit and I don't teach you anything."

"What?!" exclaimed Aerrow.

"What?!" Radarr would have said, but instead squawked in alarm.

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me," Ed said solidly. "Why do you think I wanted Radarr to come with us this time? I'll need him to fly me back to the Condor. And you've got your knives, right? You'll be fine."

"No, _what?!_" Aerrow almost shouted.

"This is non-negotiable," said Ed. "I'm sorry, but it has to be this way."

"Why?"

"It'd take too long to explain."

Aerrow looked back at the terra, at the trees around them, then at the stern frown that Ed was wearing, and to Radarr. The blue creature was eyeing him with worry.

"Is there really no other way?" he asked.

"No, there's not," replied Ed. "Besides, it's only a month. It's not like I'm gonna leave you to rot."

Aerrow gulped. He could tell that the Amestrian boy was definitely not going to back down on this decision.

"It's okay, Radarr," he said. "You can go. I'll be fine."

Radarr whined in fear.

"I mean it," Aerrow said, and he knelt down before his friend. "Make sure Ed gets back to the Condor, okay? I've dealt with worse. I'll be alright, I promise."

With a small squeak, Radarr jumped into his arms and hugged him, and Aerrow was all too happy to return it.

"Are you sure he can't stay with me?" he asked.

"Unless he's learning alchemy too, then no," said Ed.

Aerrow wished the hug could have lasted a little longer, and when he let Radarr go, the blue creature slowly ambled over to the skimmer and climbed on.

Before he could start the engine, Ed held up his hand in request for a pause.

He looked Aerrow dead in the eye.

"One is All," he said, "and All is One. You have 30 days to figure out what that means."

With that said, he nodded at Radarr, and it wasn't long before they were nothing more than a tiny speck on the skyline.

Aerrow straightened up and looked back into the forest.

This was _not_ going to be easy.


	2. Chapter 2

_1__st__ day_

"Okay," Aerrow said to himself, "first order of business: make a shelter."

He pulled off his coat and slung it over his shoulder, then walked into the jungle and immediately felt encased by its heat. He was glad he'd cut the sleeves off his shirt as it seemed that rainforests were in a permanent state of summer, no matter what time of year it was. He knew that after he'd found a safe place to call his temporary home, he'd need to find a water source.

He wouldn't have called himself an expert on survival. These were just basic things he'd need to stay alive. He wasn't even sure how he'd find them.

Something slipped under his foot as he walked and suddenly he was falling, rolling side over side down a bank, until he collided stomach-first with a tree trunk and felt all of the air pushed out of his body.

"_Aah_…" he wheezed. "That hurt… why, Ed…?"

Only a few minutes here and he'd already managed to wind himself.

His coat fluttered down over his dirtied clothes, almost as though it was mocking him. He didn't want to be bothered – after all, it was Carver that had paid for these clothes in the first place – but it was now his primary outfit and the thought that only his coat would be clean was just…

…_offensive._

The sound of falling water caught his attention and he looked up, and saw a pool being filled by a strong-running spring. Once the pain in his abdomen had faded to a bearable ache, he climbed to his feet and stumbled over to the wet rocks.

He tasted the water. It was fresh.

"Huh," he said. "That was easy."

He looked up again, this time at the canopy over his head. The leaves on all the trees were thick and strong-looking, and could probably hold back an elephant if they needed to.

It would probably make more sense to have his shelter off the ground. That way he wouldn't get as many nasties investigating him.

Speaking of which, something was crawling over his foot…

He shook it and felt it fall off, and immediately ran to a tree and scampered up it at a speed that would put a monkey to shame.

Once he was on a strong and thick branch, he paused to catch his breath.

'So here I am,' he thought bitterly. 'Aerrow: son of Lightning Strike, leader of the Storm Hawks and hero of the Atmos, hiding in a tree from bugs.'

With all due respect though, it had felt like a _big _bug.

He started pulling some leaves down and bent some branches, trying to form a rough bed.

And once that was done, and it had all been secured with vines, there was the question of food…

* * *

"You did _what?!_"

"Don't pretend like you didn't hear me," said Ed, carrying a distinct air of aloofness with him as he sat down in a chair on the bridge and crossed his legs. "30 days by himself in the wild, and if any of you go sneaking off to see him, I'm going straight back home and he'll spend the rest of his life as an alchemic noob."

"Fine, but a whole month?!" exclaimed Piper.

"What if he can't find any food?" asked Finn.

"Or clean water?" Junko pointed out.

"And that's not even mentioning all the venomous and disease-carrying creatures that could be lurking down there!" added Stork.

"He's not doing anything I didn't have to," Ed said calmly. "Training for me and Al started with our teacher leaving us for a month on an island to fend for ourselves when I was only nine and a half."

"Oh yeah?" Finn said sceptically. "And how'd it start for your teacher?"

"A full month by herself in the mountains at Briggs," Ed replied. "She raised hell for wolves and guards alike and ended up carrying a dead bear around with her when she was done. And she did it in the dead of winter."

"Yeesh," hissed Stork, who knew first-hand how horrible it could be in the Briggs region. "Your teacher sounds like a beast!"

"Yup, that's Teacher for you," Ed said cheerfully. "It's just not her if she's not making someone or something wish they were dead. And the bears in Briggs can get to 3 metres tall!"

"But this is totally insane!" Piper was almost beside herself with fury. "Edward, have you forgotten what happened to Aerrow less than two weeks ago?! What if he has a breakdown or a panic attack? None of us are going to be there to help him! He could _die _down there and we'd never even know it!"

Ed spent quite a while staring at her, calmly and patiently thinking about her words.

"One," he said, holding up a finger, "I asked Aerrow about this and he was alright with it. Two," he held up another finger, "I wouldn't have sent him out there if I didn't think it was something he could handle. And three," he lowered his hand, "if that place is anything like I think it is, there'll be plenty of ways to get food and water. Plus he'll have whatever crystals he finds, which is something I bet me, Al and Teacher would've been pretty damn grateful for."

He uncrossed his legs and sat forward with a stern expression.

"Trust me, okay?" he said. "Aerrow is _not _going to die."

* * *

_2__nd__ day_

He pulled on the vine and, in a flash, the pugrabbit was struggling for freedom.

"Gotcha!" Aerrow punched the air in glee.

He vaulted over the log he had been hiding behind and ran over to where the pugrabbit lay, struggling to get free. Its squeaks of shock were almost ear-splitting.

It only got more energetic as he knelt down.

"Wait," he said, realising something important, "how am I supposed to…"

He looked down at the furry creature as it writhed for freedom from the vine that ensnared it.

It looked up at him, its dark eyes shimmering in the light that perforated the canopy.

Aerrow gulped. This was his second day here and his stomach had been grumbling for hours. He knew that he was going to become weak if he didn't find some source of food soon.

But to kill a living creature, especially one that was so obviously pleading with him for its life…

"I don't have a choice," he muttered to himself. "It's me or the pugrabbit!"

He drew one of his knives. The furry creature looked up at him with its big, deep brown eyes.

"Don't look at me like that!" he demanded. "This is going to hurt me way more than it hurts you! O-on an emotional level, at least!"

He closed his eyes and raised the knife, the blade glowing electric blue-

-and heard a sharp meowing noise, followed by another squeal from the pugrabbit.

When he opened his eyes, a dragon cat was making off with the creature.

"Hey!" Aerrow shouted as he forgot about his hesitation and leapt up to give chase. "That's _my _dinner! Give that back!"

Part of him was pointing out how insane he must have sounded, yelling at a winged feline that had no hope of understanding him, but another part of him was pointing out that bottling up his rage wouldn't do him any good at all.

However, there was no way he was going to catch up to the creature, and after it leapt over a large, fungus-coated fallen trunk, he knelt down behind it to see what was going on.

The dragon cat flew up to a large hole in a tree, in which Aerrow could see several smaller furry faces of a similar shape and colour, all staring at the larger one in expectation.

"Kittens," Aerrow realised. "I get it now; it has kittens!"

Said kittens started voraciously tearing at the pugrabbit, spilling blood and organs around them.

Aerrow made a face.

"Ugh," he groaned. "Gross."

It was almost enough to make him lose his appetite.

His gaze wandered to a large brown mushroom that was protruding out of the damp wood. Was it poisonous? He had no idea.

Almost enough…

Before he had a chance to pick it, it sprayed a cloud of spores in his face and he stumbled away, coughing and choking and forcing his lungs to clear.

Once he could breathe again, he looked back at the fungus.

"Screw you too, mushroom!" he yelled. "Screw you! I wasn't even hungry anyway!"

_GAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW_

His stomach begged to disagree.

He rubbed it with his gloved left hand. He knew from experience that he was in store for pain if he didn't find something to eat soon.

'Well,' he thought, remembering his pool, 'maybe I could try fish.'

* * *

There were indeed rather a number of fish swimming around in the pool he had chosen as his main water source. He couldn't tell what kind they were, only that they were reasonably large and…

"Wait a minute," he moaned, and facepalmed almost hard enough to concuss himself, "how the hell am I supposed to catch them?!"


	3. Chapter 3

_4__th__ day_

The sunlight pierced Aerrow's eyelids and roused him from his formerly peaceful slumber, making him painfully aware of the ache in his gut.

He was _so hungry_.

He thought back to his days spent with Finn and Piper and Radarr on Terra Neverlandis, where they would shoot down Cyclonian ships and raid them for supplies. It had all seemed so easy back then, with just the four of them.

But he was alone now.

He'd tried diving into the pool to catch the fish, but they slipped out of his fingers the moment he got what he thought was a good grip. Even if he did manage to get one out of the water, it was quickly carried away by a dragon cat the moment he put it down somewhere to get another.

And he didn't trust any of the fruits or berries that could be in this forest. He had no idea whether or not they could be poisonous. A single tiny bite could mean horrible sickness, or worse…

It wasn't really worth it anyway to have to dry off his automail every time he dived for a fish. His coat still felt damp from his previous little swim. And he knew this because he had been using it as a blanket. Plus he was fairly sure something was now living in his shoe.

He looked out at the forest that had become his temporary home. It was already alive with a cacophony of wildlife.

Before he could forget, he pulled out one of his knives and, making sure to keep it turned off, carved another notch in the trunk of the tree that had become his home.

He hoped he could make it through the next 26 days in one piece.

And there was Ed's task for him: One is All, All is One…

What did that mean?!

* * *

Ed frowned into the bathroom mirror as he held his hair up above his head.

No, that just wasn't going to work. He released it and tied it back into its now usual ponytail.

"Yo."

He looked to the doorway and saw Finn standing there, leaning against the frame and frowning.

"Oh, hey," he said casually. "I figure if I'm gonna be crashing with you guys, I may as well get on your level."

He held out his bare arms (well, bare except for the fingerless gloves) to display his patchwork outfit of blue and black.

"Like it?" he asked proudly, and turned to show the metal insignia riveted to his vest. "You guys all seem to have your own signature colour, so I figure since red and gold are taken, I'll go with black. It's not as badass as red, but it's foreboding and I like that."

"Who the hell do you think you're trying to fool?"

Ed's face and arms fell.

"You seriously think we're all okay with you dumping our leader on some random terra and leaving him to fend for himself for a whole month?" Finn asked bitterly. "What're you trying to pull?"

"I told you all." Ed rubbed his forehead in exasperation. "It's the best way to kick start alchemy training. And no, I didn't just 'dump him on some random terra'. It's a thinking exercise."

"Thinking?!" Finn was enraged as Ed tried to walk past him on his way out of the room. "About what? Trees? Dragon cats? How long it'll take for him to get eaten?!"

"You think you could do better?" asked Ed. "If so, tell me: what is the purpose for the shape of a transmutation circle?"

"It's-" Finn bit back his words as he realised he had no idea.

"What are the three stages of a transmutation?"

"Uh…"

"And what is the meaning behind One is All and All is One in relation to the alchemic process?"

Finn was silent.

"That's what I thought."

With that said, Ed continued to walk away.

"I'm not gonna let you steal him."

Ed paused.

"You hear?" Finn continued. "He's been my friend since before I could count to fifty. I'm not gonna let you take him from me."

Ed would have made some crack about surprise that Finn could count to fifty, but doing so would only dig him even deeper.

He walked away.

* * *

He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of this before.

Fire. It was so obvious!

Aerrow grabbed the two sticks and rubbed them together as hard as he could over the small heap of leaves he had gathered together. If he could just get a fire going, everything else would seem like a piece of cake.

He continued rubbing the sticks together.

And rubbing.

And rubbing.

And rubbing.

And rubbing.

And still rubbing.

One of the twigs snapped.

Irritated, he felt the wood. It was hot, definitely – as friction tended to cause – but too damp and soft to get any sort of spark going.

With a growl of rage, he threw the broken stick into the pool.

If he'd had the energy, he would have become absolutely infuriated.

* * *

_5__th__ day_

It was raining.

Aerrow sat huddled in his little nest, listening to the water pounding down on the leaves over his head and staring at the notches carved into the side of the tree.

His stomach growled again, complaining about its emptiness.

'I'm sorry,' he said internally. 'There's no point going out until the rain stops.'

He rubbed his aching shoulder, noting with dissatisfaction how cold the metal was where it touched his skin.

If Lady Luck didn't smile on him soon, he wasn't going to be there for her to smile on for much longer.

* * *

_7__th__ day_

He had nothing left.

Aerrow lay on his stomach by the side of the pool, his bare flesh hand hanging below the surface of the cold water.

Water. He had plenty of it. Enough to last him a long, long time.

But it had been weeks since he had eaten a substantial meal – not since his temporary residence with the Elrics, and he certainly hadn't dared to touch the food in that hospital until he knew for sure it was safe – and now he barely even had the energy left to breathe.

'Dammit,' he cursed internally. 'Is this how it's going to end? Is this how I'm going to die?'

It was a cold, fresh-feeling day, but the sun was beating down on his back.

'They're going to come back in 23 days and find me lying here,' he thought. 'What's left of me, anyway. Is it possible for a body to rot away into a skeleton in under four weeks? God, I… I don't know. I didn't even figure out what Ed's words meant. One is All, All is…'

He could hardly even keep his eyes open anymore.

'Maybe they'll bury me,' he wondered weakly. 'They'll come here and find a skeleton, picked clean by birds and bugs, and they'll put up a headstone for me. Here lies Aerrow, departed age 15.'

Something nudged against his fingers.

'15. Barely anything.'

It nudged again.

'Was it even…'

His thoughts trailed to a halt as he realised, in a sudden flash of emergency energy, that a fish was nudging against his fingers. In an instant his hand closed around it and yanked it out of the water.

He didn't pause to think as he sank his teeth into it.

Blood spurted out over his face and chest, forcing him to close his eyes, and the fish abruptly ceased in its wiggling but he ignored it. He was far too hungry to care about the horrible texture or taste, and he chewed and chewed, resisting the growing urge to spit, and then swallowed.

Aerrow opened his eyes.

He was holding a now-dead fish that had an immense bite mark carved into its side. The sight of it combined with the blood all over his hands and the lingering taste in his mouth made him feel horribly nauseous.

"Oh god," he muttered. "O-oh_ god…_"

He threw it down, wanting to get the corpse as far away from him as possible.

"I killed it," he realised, voice softened by shock, and stared at the blood that covered his hands. "What the hell's wrong with me? I just- what?! How could I-?"

Gasping to the edge of hyperventilating, he looked up again, and watched a dragon cat pick up the dead fish and carry it away.

"It didn't care," he muttered, his mind still something of a mess. "It didn't even care that I killed it, it just wanted food, just like I… I just wanted food and I…"

His gaze wandered back to his hands.

"…I'm alive because I consumed a life…"

* * *

He set his knife down next to the pile and held it there.

"No," Aerrow said to himself as he caught his breath and tightened his fingers around a stone he had found nearby. "I'm not going to die."

He struck the stone against the metal.

"Not here."

And again.

"Not like this!"

Sparks began to fly.


	4. Chapter 4

Smoke trickled out from somewhere in the little heap of leaves.

Aerrow crouched down on his hands and knees and blew on it, and it wasn't long before flames were flickering out of the little heap.

"YES!" he screamed in delight.

* * *

The fish enjoyed being tickled, he discovered. If he lay on his stomach with his hand in the water, sooner or later one of them would come along to investigate, and he would run his finger under its belly and it would stay still and enjoy the experience. Then he would snatch it out, when it was starting to doze off.

So it was that Aerrow now sat in front of a roaring fire, chewing on a fish that certainly tasted far, _far _better now that it had been cooked on a stick that he had sharpened with one of his weapons.

Something crunched in the woods behind him, breaking the peaceful night, and he looked round, reaching for the aforementioned weapons.

A pair of small dragon cats emerged from the greenery, obviously attracted by the oily smell.

Smiling, Aerrow peeled off a piece of flesh from his dinner and tossed it to them, for which they seemed more than grateful.

He wasn't native here, of course. It made sense that he would give something back.

* * *

_10__th__ day_

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

He charged through the wilderness with his shirt hanging off his head and fish blood and mud painted on his face and body, blades glowing in his hands. Anybody who could see him now would probably assume he was out of his mind.

The dragon cats were on the hunt. He had heard their yowls from his little nest. He didn't know what they were chasing, but he knew that he was going to have some of it for breakfast and none of them could stop him.

He drew level with the pack. They didn't seem to care about his presence. Up ahead he saw their quarry: two pugrabbits, fully grown, one of them a little on the overweight side and falling behind. It was obvious which one the felines were focusing on, so he continued past it and ran on to the other one.

As he drew closer, he switched off his blades and tucked them into his waistband, then dived forward and caught the pugrabbit he pursued in his bare hands.

If only his friends could see him now. He must have looked _epic._

Aerrow held the struggling creature against the ground with one hand and, with the other, drew and activated one of his blades.

"Forgive me," he muttered.

He was taking a life.

And in so doing, extending his own.

* * *

_14__th__ day_

With a yelp of terror, Aerrow awakened.

He was met with a pair of shining yellow eyes that stared into his face, and looking around proved to him that he was safe in his little nook, facing the area where the sky was greying in the approach of dawn.

He was _not_ in an alleyway in Central.

He looked back to the dragon cat that still stared at him. Its fur was a pale, mottled golden brown colour under its khaki wings. It would have been rather well camouflaged in its undergrowth, but right now it was watching the Sky Knight intently.

Aerrow touched his nose. It felt damp.

"Did you wake me up?" he asked. "Did you know I was having a nightmare?"

He scratched behind its ears as a show of gratitude, and it leaned into his fingers. He held up his arm and watched as it settled down next to his body. Smiling, Aerrow rested his arm on its back.

It had brought him out of his nightmare, so now his body and coat were keeping it warm.

* * *

_19__th__ day_

It was cold, but the water thundering down onto Aerrow's head was more refreshing than he could ever have imagined. Waterfalls were _definitely _more thorough than showers.

He hoped nobody saw him right now. It would just be humiliating.

As if confirming his fears, an engine roared overhead and he hurried away from the water and pulled on his pants, then grabbed his knives and used them to scale a nearby tree.

The carrier was immense and bore a large insignia styled like a golden swan.

The Rex Guardians.

A light started blinking in one side. Flash, pause, flash, pause, flash…

It was a code!

That was G, then a dot, dash and dot was R, then two single dots, a dash, two dots in quick succession, a dash and a dot, two dashes and a dot again and finally three rapid dots.

"Greetings," Aerrow muttered.

As if any other form of salutation would be used by folks from Terra Rex.

He held up one of his own blades, switching it on and off again and hoping it was visible. Dot-dot-dot-dot, dot-dot.

H-I.

He rested his arm and waited for a response.

D-O-U-N-E-E-D-H-E-L-P

Abbreviations? Considering Rex, that was almost alarming.

N-O-T-H-N-X, he responded. I-M-G-O-O-D

R-U-S-U-R-E, replied the carrier. They must have been using a telescope or something, because how else would Aerrow be visible from this distance?

Y-E-S, he signalled. D-O-I-N-G-F-I-N-E

This felt rather bizarre. He wasn't used to conversing in code for so long.

O-K, said the ship.

While it lingered, a thought occurred to Aerrow and he held the knife higher. A smile spread across his face as he flashed:

T-E-L-L-H-A-R-R-Y-I-S-A-I-D-H-I

* * *

"Sir?" the pilot asked. "Is something wrong?"

Harrier frowned as he focused his telescope, and lowered the signalling torch with a huff.

"The bloody _cheek_," he muttered.

* * *

_24__th__ day_

The stick plunged through the pugrabbits' body and it instantly fell still. Aerrow smiled at the satisfaction of a job well done.

But as he straightened up, he got the inescapable feeling that someone – or something – was watching him.

He looked up and saw rows of yellow eyes watching him from the undergrowth.

He'd caught the natives' dinner.

"Sorry," he said, even though he knew it was pointless to talk.

He prized the corpse off the small spear and stepped back, and the felines were upon it and devouring it in an instant. It was messy, and obvious that he wouldn't be able to salvage anything from what was left over afterwards.

Never mind. There were plenty more fish in the pool.

* * *

_27__th__ day_

Aerrow knew his time in seclusion was drawing to a close.

"_One is All and All is One. You have 30 days to figure out what that means."_

Insects whistled and chirruped into the night as he sat on the thick branch, looking up at the starry sky, stroking the little winged kitten that had made itself comfortable on his lap.

"You wanna know something?" Aerrow said to it. "I think I've got it figured out now."

The soft feline purred in contentment.

"While I've been here, I've only been taking what I need," he recalled, "and it's been restructured as part of my body. And eventually, when I die, my body will be broken down and restructured as part of the earth. I'll go into the grass and other plants, and then the pugrabbits will eat those, and guys like you will eat the pugrabbits, right?"

The kitten yawned.

"Piper would call that the food chain," Aerrow said, "but it's more than that. It's like…"

The stars twinkled in his eyes.

"It's like a flow," he said, feeling as though he had known this all along and was only now remembering it. "A great big flow that runs throughout the universe. I know there are others beside it, but they're all combined, aren't they? And compared to that, you and me are practically nothing."

A meteor shot across the sky.

"And by putting all of those little individual ones together," Aerrow continued, "you get a single great all. That's what it means."

He smiled. He could barely believe he was saying anything like this.

"Dad was right," he said, speaking to himself this time. "There really is a lot of existential stuff."

* * *

_30__th__ day_

Once he had carved the final vertical scratch into the side of the tree, he turned and looked out at the sun as it set over the canopy.

"Okay," he breathed, "better go over it one last time."

He sat down on the bough, watching as a small block of birds took flight.

"The universe revolves on a flow so huge that humankind can't even comprehend it," he recited to himself, "not without seeing the Truth, at least. And the idea is to understand that flow, deconstruct it and then reconstruct it. And that's what alchemy is."

He felt a large dragon cat leap onto his shoulder, but he didn't bother looking to see. He'd more than grown used to them by now.

"And the thing is," he said, "that same system can be applied to anything."

Still without looking, he reached up and scratched behind the animal's ears. He wondered if he was going to miss them when he finally went home.

"Alchemy is just a small part of the flow," he said, and allowed himself a soft smile as the feline affectionately licked his ear.

"And the flow is that of life itself."

The sun dipped below the horizon.


	5. Chapter 5

Radarr jumped off before the skimmer's engine had turned off, and he charged into Aerrow like a furry blue cannon ball.

"Hey!" Aerrow hugged him tightly. "Did you miss me?"

He would have found some way to reply, but Radarr took a long, hard sniff and glared at the Sky Knight in distaste.

"Yeah, I know," Aerrow said with a shrug. "I could use a proper shower. A waterfall doesn't really do a great job."

He stood up, Radarr taking pride of place on his shoulders, as Ed stepped off the skimmer. Aerrow had to try hard not to stare at his patched black and blue clothes.

"So," the ex-alchemist said. "One is All, All is One: meaning?"

Aerrow took a deep breath. He'd been rehearsing this from the second he woke up.

"All is the world," he said, "and one is me."

It was a tense moment as they stared at one another, emerald green fixed on fiery gold, with the words ticking over inside Ed's mind.

He threw back his head and laughed.

And laughed.

He laughed so hard that Aerrow began to fear for his sanity.

"That's…!" he wheezed. "That's exactly the same answer that me and Al gave! Oh my GOD, you couldn't make that up!"

He took a deep breath.

"Okay," he said, with a massive grin, "let's get back to your place."

"So I'm in?" asked Aerrow.

Ed's smile somehow grew even wider in response. He didn't need to speak to make his answer clear.

"OH YEAH!" After punching the air in joy, Aerrow enthusiastically ran over to his skimmer. Ed climbed on behind them.

"Jeez, you _stink!_" And raised a finger to his nose. "You're supposed to be training to be an alchemist, not a crazy cat lady!"

"I had to share my food with the dragon cats quite a lot," Aerrow explained, and revved the engine. "They love fish, but I don't think they like to go in the water. And what's with your getup?"

* * *

The atmosphere was of relief and excitement as Aerrow touched down and jumped off before his skimmer had even fully come to a halt, so happy was he to finally be back home.

The hangar doors opened and Finn, Piper, Junko and Stork (in that order) jumped out before they had even withdrawn all the way and ran full speed to their leader.

"I'm in!" Aerrow declared, metal fist held aloft in triumph. "I did it, I'm in!"

"AWESOME!" shouted Piper as she leapt on him in a hug.

"I knew you could do it!" cried Junko, and picked them both up in a tight (but controlled) embrace.

"Phwoar, dude, you _stink!_" complained Finn with a hand over his nose. "How much fish have you been eating?"

"And is this dragon cat fir all over your clothes?" asked Stork, picking a clump of it off the Sky Knight's coat. "Exactly what kind of company were you keeping during your supposed solitude?"

"Alright, alright!" Aerrow held up a defensive hand as he was set down and Piper released him. "One at a time, guys! I just got back!"

"You can tell us everything while I'm tuning up your arm," said Piper, "_after _you've taken a good long shower and put your clothes to clean."

"What? But I don't wanna be sitting around in my undies!"

"It's either that or stink up my ship!" Stork pointed out. "Which do you think any one of us would prefer?"

Radarr ran after them, quickly catching up and returning to Aerrow's shoulder, and Ed wheeled the skimmer back into the hangar.

There was something oddly touching about reunions.

* * *

"…so I signalled back saying 'Tell Harry I said hi'."

The rest of the group burst out laughing. Piper almost dropped her screwdriver because she was sniggering so hard.

"A-are you kidding?" asked Finn.

"And what did they say back?" said Junko.

"Dunno," Aerrow admitted with a failure of a shrug. "They just flew off. Personally, I'm hoping Harrier was on board and he saw my message."

"Yeah, could you imagine the look on his face?" Finn grinned. "The guy's so uptight; he must've been fuming!"

"Tell me about it," Aerrow sighed.

"There." Piper tightened the final screw. "Everything was fine, but I've tightened a few wires that had come loose and given the whole thing a bit of a tune-up. It should work a lot more smoothly now."

"And if not, you can always let me take a look," Stork volunteered.

"Thanks," said Aerrow, "but I'm fine."

"You sure?" asked Finn. "You sure you don't mind sitting here in your personals?"

Aerrow, who was wearing only a vest and boxers due to the current state of his other clothes, frowned.

"But it's not even cold," Junko pointed out, and gestured to the rest of the bridge. "Not here, at least. I guess we kinda have Ed to thank for that."

"Please, it was nothing!" Ed said in obvious faux-modesty.

"Huh?" Aerrow looked to his new tutor in confusion. "Ed, what did you do?"

"Well, you know how I said I had enough money left from my State earnings to buy a townhouse in Central?" the blond asked with a smile. "It's simple: I don't want a townhouse in Central and I sure as hell don't need one, but I figured you guys wouldn't mind being able to afford one. So I had all those cenz converted into Atmos currency and, long story short, I'm sitting surrounded by its new owners."

"We're rich!" Finn said excitedly.

"We can actually go to shops for food!" added the just-as-happy Junko.

"And upgrades!" Stork added. "We can get new turret cannons, stronger glass for the windscreen, and-"

"_And_," Piper interrupted before the tangent could go too far, "we might even be able to get stronger crystals to use in our weapons. Or maybe just _more _crystals to play around with. My head is still spinning with the possibilities!"

Aerrow gave Ed a grateful smile.

"You didn't have to do that," he said.

"Yeah, actually, I did," said Ed. "I have to find some way to pay you guys back for putting up with me."

Before the conversation could continue any further, there was a buzz from the radio. Radarr rolled his eyes and scampered over to it, and the rest of the group – save for Aerrow – groaned and sighed in annoyance.

"Not again!" moaned Finn.

"This is the third time this week!" said Piper. "I'm beginning to get a bit creeped out!"

"Why?" asked Aerrow. "What's the problem?"

"Some guy's been radioing us almost the whole time you were gone," Junko explained. "He keeps asking for you and as soon as any of us say you're not there, he just rings off. It's getting really freaky!"

"I don't even know how he knew what the Condor's frequency was," said Stork. "Either he's been stalking us or…"

"…or he already knew it years ago," Ed suggested.

"Maybe," said Piper, "but how would that be possible?"

With a sly raised eyebrow, Ed smiled at Aerrow, whose hopes began to soar.

There was a squawk from Radarr, and the redhead looked round to find he was being pointed at. The blue creature then indicated the radio receiver. It was obvious what he was trying to say, and Aerrow got up and cautiously approached.

"Nothing to worry about, guys," he said. "If it's who I think it is…"

He took the receiver and, trying to keep his hand from shaking, raised it to mouth level.

"Hello?" he said.

"There you are, finally! I was beginning to wonder if you'd gone back to Amestris!"

"Dad!" Hopes confirmed, Aerrow was so ecstatic that he didn't hear the shouts of shock behind him. "H-how are you even- Where are you? How are you? When did you get to Atmos? Nobody's recognised you, have they?!"

"Wow, slow down!" Lightning Strike responded. "I'm having to borrow a radio from some grumpy doctor on Atmosia. Had to bribe him with coffee. He keeps threatening to shoot apples at me if I don't make this quick."

"Dr Clipwing?" asked Aerrow. "Didn't even know he had a radio. But when did you come back to Atmos?"

"About four weeks ago," replied the soldier. "I have to say, what I've seen of it hasn't changed all that much since I last saw it. Then again, I haven't really moved off this terra yet, so I can't really comment. And no, you'll be glad nobody's recognised me. I think the military uniform draws most of the attention."

Aerrow sighed, so relieved that he fell to his knees. He didn't want to know how much chaos could spark up if Lightning Strike, the person who was supposed to have been the hero and saviour of Atmos, made a sudden and abrupt return from the dead.

"What about you?" the man in question asked. "Where have you been, Aerrow? I've tried calling a few times, but I keep getting people who say you aren't available because you're training. What have you been doing?"

"I'm learning alchemy," said Aerrow. "For real this time. I've got Edward Elric as my teacher and I'm going to learn how to be a proper alchemist, just like you!"

"Just like me?" Lightning Strike echoed. "Maybe we could fight together at some point in the future."

Aerrow could barely believe what he was hearing.

"That would be _amazing_," he breathed.

"Yeah," said his father. "I'm afraid I can't stay in Atmos for very long at a time. I can't risk lingering and drawing attention to myself."

"And yet my friends all tell me this is the third time you've called this week?"

"Well…"

"Dad, it's only Wednesday. How often have you been calling?"

"It's just that I haven't forgotten the state you were in the last time I saw you," said Lightning Strike. "Can you blame me for wanting to make sure my son is alright? To know you're in good hands and being properly looked after?"

"I'm not an invalid, Dad," said Aerrow. "I'm fine. I promise."

There was a pause from the other end.

"I can tell," said Lightning Strike. "You sound much happier. Please understand that I'm not trying to be creepy. It's a parent's job to worry, but it's been a long time since I was able to do that job."

"No, I'm glad," said Aerrow. "And I'm grateful. I'm grateful that you would care about me."

Another pause, followed by a faint, deep-voiced grumble from the other end.

"Sorry," said the soldier, "I have to go now. The doctor says he needs to make a call. I promise I'll speak to you later. Maybe I'll even come and visit if I can find a ride!"

"That would be awesome," said Aerrow. "See you then, Dad."

"Take care, kiddo."

There was a short buzz, signalling the end of the conversation, and Aerrow hung the receiver on its hook.

A prickle on the back of his neck told him he was being watched.

When he looked back, he saw that each and every one of his friends were staring at him with expressions of alarm. Well, all except Ed, who was eyeing them all with extreme amusement.

"'Dad'?!" Finn was the one to break the silence.

Aerrow smiled nervously.

"It's a long story," he said.

* * *

He heaved a sigh through his nose, but otherwise, he didn't move a muscle.

"Amazing," Ed commented from the doorway. "Me and Al took three days to get used to sleeping in beds again and this guy's out like a light."

"Yeah," said Piper, who was on the other side of the frame. "I guess he's just glad to be home."

Aerrow subconsciously pulled the also-sleeping Radarr closer, cuddling him as though he were a teddy.

Ed leaned back and looked down the corridor.

"It's so quiet," he commented. "I can't get over how eerie this place can get at night."

"You'll get used to it," said Piper. "Eventually."

Aside from their breaths, the only other noise was the quiet humming of the engines.

"When he came back…"

Ed turned his gaze to the specialist.

"…he was a mess," she said. "A real mess. Even after we got him back to the ship, it was hours before he completely stopped crying. I used the last of the energy in the Nil crystal I had to heal all his wounds and fix all the scratches and dents in his automail, but he couldn't look me in the eye while I was doing it. He was scared. That much was obvious."

Ed didn't bother asking what Aerrow could be scared of. He didn't need to.

"He was worried that we would reject him," Piper continued. "And I'm worried that it might come back. We made sure he was comfortable – new clothes was the top priority, 'coz obviously he couldn't fight in hospital PJs – but he didn't really seem to settle down. Not totally, at least."

She wiped her eye.

"You okay?" asked Ed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she lied. "It's just a bit painful to remember, that's all."

Her gaze returned to Aerrow.

"I think that alone time did him good," she commented. "He seems stronger than he was before."

"Yeah," said Ed, "and hopefully, if all goes according to plan, the next few months will see him grow even stronger."


End file.
